The present invention is in the field of on-line communications, and more particularly in the field of identifying users of social networking services in an on-line environment maintained by a content provider other than the social networking service provider itself. Social networks have become one of the dominant forms of human interaction over the Internet in the last few years. Accordingly, active users of social networking services are often identified in various media by a social network user name. The “mention” of a person using their name or user ID for a social networking service in media or in a text entry on some other content service can sometimes be referred to as an “@mention”—pronounced “at mention.”
Often, such a text entry on the other content service amounts to an editable content field, such as input to a blog. The @mention effectively serves as an identifying reference for the member of a social network, whether the member is the person entering text or somebody else. If the social networking service and the other content service are integrated together in some way or exchange detailed information about users, the “mentioned” user can be notified of the @mention or other actions can be taken. Otherwise, the mention merely serves as information for potential readers.